Home Β» Soil Β» Living soils Β» Six factors of pedogenesis. This article details the six factors that determine their formation, appearance, properties, and functioning.
In our climates, the main factor is the lithology of the parent material, which initially determines the morphology and main properties of soils for a long time. But other factors play a role: the local climate, the position within the terrain, the spontaneous vegetation, not to mention the time factor.
Since the Neolithic period and the development of agriculture, humans have also become important agents of pedogenesis. Ploughing, drainage, irrigation, fertiliser and pesticide application, liming, etc. A first article See Soil formation in temperate climates defined what soils are and their main specificities, in particular their organization into aggregates and the presence of a multiform porosity favourable to the activity of living beings.
Figure 1. Simplified diagram of the relationships between soils and the different factors of pedogenesis. Figure 1 presents these different factors of pedogenesis but also their interrelationships. Indeed, for example, the existence of parent materials depends closely on the combination of the nature of the rocks and the position in the relief ; soils have a significant impact on vegetation, but the latter in turn has an influence on soils via the form of humus.
As a final example, while it is obvious that the climate strongly determines the vegetation, the latter, in turn, has an influence on the local climate cooler and wetter mesoclimate in a forest area.
